The notion that the lion's share of television and popular culture belongs in a sideshow has been around for some time. In "Those Were the Days," the theme song to the iconic 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," arch-reactionary Archie Bunker longs for a past when, "Freaks were in a circus tent." Instead, we presume, of sitting in his living room and married to his daughter.

Today's TV viewer may feel the same way about the presence of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" or the "Real Housewives" of any number of states and cities invading their living rooms.

Of course, some do gravitate toward shock-value. And for them, there's "Freakshow" (10 p.m., AMC, TV-14), now entering its second season. Todd Ray has established quite a family of eccentrics and performers at his Venice Beach establishment.

''Freakshow" follows the outlandish nature of their acts and their audiences' predictable awe. It also wallows in the humdrum, the day-to-day life of the sword-swallowers, pierced, tattooed, vertically challenged and those who sleep on beds of razor blades.

In one scene, Ray describes his business's explosive growth and wonders just where they'll all end up next. The next shot features the exterior of a Las Vegas casino.

"Secrets of the Dead" (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) examines one of the great mysteries of antiquity: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the gardens apparently vanished without a trace, leaving no clues or rubble for archaeologists to ponder.

Scholars interviewed on tonight's "Dead" speculate that the long-missing wonder may have left evidence behind, if we know where to look. In fact, some think they may not have been in Babylon at all, and that King Nebuchadnezzar had nothing to do with their construction. More recent digs, some conducted with the aid of satellite technology, relocate the gardens, and the elaborate canal system required to nourish them, to another site in modern Iraq, and date it to nearly a century before Nebuchadnezzar.

Underpopulated Alaska is certainly well represented on cable. You can spend two hours with "Alaska State Troopers" (8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Nat Geo, r, TV-14) and then check out the new series "Alaskan Bush People" (10 p.m., Discovery, TV-14).